Craig Turnbull doesn’t mind telling people that he frequently keeps his fingers crossed and knocks on wood any chance he gets.
That’s because in the rough and tumble world of college wrestling, one injury or two (or three in the case of the Mountaineers) can wreck a lineup or a season. The last three years Turnbull’s teams have endured so many injuries that he has to wonder if his two totally replaced knees are not sturdier than some of the guys he’s putting out on the mat.
“We have had just an unusual amount of injuries,” Turnbull explained recently. “My son Kyle was out for most of three years and we were counting on that weight class to be filled with someone of national caliber. Then Brandon (Rader) goes out for three years and Donnie (Jones) goes out for two – those are things you try not whine about too much because it’s part of the sport but when it hits you more than one at a time you are going to have a different team for a year or two.”
And the Mountaineers certainly have been a different team. Last year’s 3-10 dual meet record was Turnbull’s worst since his second season at WVU in 1981 when the Mountaineers went 6-10-1. Injuries have led to poor matchups, which in turn, have led to many more losses than expected.
“Matchups are so critical in our sport,” Turnbull explained. “With an injury if it is basketball you can change how you play or if it is football and the offensive guard is dinged up a little bit you can move the tackle over, but you can’t do that in wrestling. If my 197-pounder is hurt I can’t move my 133-pounder to 197. And you have only 9.9 scholarships for 10 spots so when you take one or two injuries you have a whole different team that goes out there.”
“In soccer you can play a little different scheme and compensate (for injuries) but we can’t do that. If you guess wrong when you are filling a weight class and the kid just doesn’t turn out to be as good, it isn’t that you just run a different scheme or play a different defense, that weight class is a huge hole and you really struggle,” he said.
No injury has stung more than Rader’s three-year journey into the abyss. After becoming the first true freshman in program history to earn All-America honors in 2006, he spent an injury-plagued sophomore season in 2007 that also ended successfully in the national tournament. Then in ‘08 Rader seriously injured his knee against NCAA runner-up Chad Mendes in an early season tournament and it has been an uphill battle for him to get back on the mat ever since.
Not only was an 149-pound All-American removed from the lineup, but also a potential national champion. That is the equivalent of Pat White being lost to the football team or Da’Sean Butler gone from the men’s basketball team – for three straight years.
“When we go without Brandon Rader for three years it’s hard to explain how significant that is,” Turnbull said. “He was a potential national champion out of our lineup – and you take Donnie out also, we’ve got a big change and we can’t fill it because we’re holding a scholarship believing he is going to be healthy.”
Rader, Jones at 165, and junior 184-pounder Matt Ryan are back on the mat and not coincidentally, the Mountaineers are once again back to winning.
West Virginia pulled off its biggest dual meet victory in 17 years by beating eighth-ranked Illinois on the road last Saturday. It was the first time since 2007 the Mountaineers beat a ranked team, the first time since knocking off Penn State in 2002 that West Virginia defeated a team from the Big Ten, and 17 years since the last time it upset a top 10 team when the 23rd-ranked Mountaineers topped the fourth-rated Nittany Lions, 22-16, on Feb. 20, 1994.
“It’s one of the more significant wins we’ve had here in the last few years,” Turnbull said.
Rader was the catalyst by getting a fall against seventh-ranked Eric Terrazas in the final match of the day to help West Virginia pull out a 18-15 come-from-behind victory. Turnbull said it was the combination of Rader’s clutch pin as well as big victories by Ryan over 17th-ranked Tony Dallango and Donnie Jones over Conrad Polz that led to the upset.
“We turned around three losses,” Turnbull noted. “Donnie Jones lost to his opponent last year. Matt Ryan lost by a fall to his opponent just a month ago at the Las Vegas tournament, and Brandon Rader was defeated by his opponent at the Las Vegas tournament. Their kid was ranked seventh in the country.”
Heading into the match, Turnbull wasn’t sure the matchups were in his favor considering how his top three wrestlers performed in the past against their Illinois counterparts.
“We had three of our better people who took loses to their guys so we were really hard-pressed to see how we were going to win this dual meet,” he said. “The idea that we turned around three losses to wins certainly was a key, and everyone performed well.”
Rader’s win was particularly pleasing to Turnbull, considering what his sixth-year senior has gone through personally just to return to the mat.
“He’s been out three years of competition and it hasn’t been going well and his body hasn’t been cooperating,” said Turnbull. “It was a tremendous win for him and for us and you couldn’t have written a script better for what he needed at this time of his career.”
Of course Turnbull has little time to celebrate. The Mountaineers are back at it this Friday at the WVU Coliseum in a unique joint venture with the gymnastics team being billed as Beauty and the Beast. The WVU women’s gymnastics team will be competing simultaneously against the Michigan State women, and both events are scheduled to get under way at 7:30 p.m.
“It lined up with Michigan State coming in,” Turnbull explained. “They couldn’t do Saturday night because they had to turn around and wrestle Ohio State in the middle of the day on Sunday. We couldn’t get the gym earlier and we would have had to go to a high school or cancel the match, so it lined up nicely.”
When gymnastics coach Linda Burdette approached Turnbull about having a joint match he said he was willing to give it a try.
“It has created a lot of interest,” Turnbull said. “If it creates some energy and will help get people into the stands then it’s certainly worthwhile trying.”
Turnbull is hopeful his team, now 4-3 after last Saturday’s victory, will have some momentum heading into the heart of its EWL schedule and then later during tournament season. Once again, Turnbull is keeping his fingers crossed, particularly with Rader, Jones and Ryan.
“We’re not out of the woods with their bodies or their injuries,” Turnbull said. “If their bodies continue to heal and everything is strong for the national tournament we will feel a little better. But if they go in where they are wrestling around injuries ?
“I will know better when we get through February,” he added.
Just to be safe, it might be a good idea for Turnbull to avoid black cats and open ladders, at least until the middle of March.
By John Antonik
For MSNsportsNET.com
-WVU-
ja/01/11/11
Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.